Summer-like weather welcomes competitors day before first round

Pebble Beach >> Weather and course conditions couldn’t have been more ideal during the 3M Celebrity Challenge Wednesday that this year saw Clint Eastwood’s return as a team captain and a slew of fellow celebrity participants playing in summer-like weather.

Last year, Eastwood had to call in sick while singer Huey Lewis wound up pinch-hitting for him as team leader.

“I had the flu last year and I’m very glad to be back,” Eastwood told The Herald. “I’ve got a great coach on the bag.”

That instructor was Eastwood’s caddy for the day, Hall of Fame golfer Sir Nick Faldo, who had only praise for his player.

“We’re going to be working on Clint’s rotation,” Faldo half-jokingly told announcer Tom Gross. “He’s looking like a million bucks.”

Ultimately Team Eastwood, which included Hall of Fame golfer and two-time U.S. Women’s Open Champion Juli Inkster, actor and TV personality Alfonso Ribeiro and country music singer Clay Walker, took home the Eastwood/Murray Cup by winning the most holes 4 to 1. It was the fourth time competing against Bill Murray’s team, which this year was made up of actor Josh Duhamel, actress/model Kelly Rohrbach and country music singer Toby Keith.

The event serves as a warm-up act for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, which tees off Thursday at Pebble Beach Golf Links, Spyglass Hill Golf Course and the Shore Course at Monterey Peninsula Country Club. It featured the celebrities in a condensed round of golf, playing in alternate-shot format along the Pebble Beach Golf Links “Whiskey Run” — holes 1, 2, 3, 17 and 18.

On Wednesday, Gross got the play started with his traditionally sardonic commentary.

“Some say these are hard and distressing times for Alfonso,” quipped Gross on the first hole, referring to Ribeiro’s less-than-perfect play. “He’s trying to get into the good graces of Clint.”

“Listen, I was the champion on Season 19 of ‘Dancing with the Stars,’” replied Ribeiro, whose known for busting out his signature Carlton dance moves from “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” “I know how to win, so respect the dance.”

While Ribeiro ultimately won $40,000 for his charity, Fresh Start Surgical Gifts, it was country crooner Keith who found himself hunched under a large California oak on the second hole straining to make his shot.

“Can we get you a chair?” asked Gross before Keith finally did swing, almost hitting Faldo in the back.

“Apparently, Toby doesn’t like Nick Faldo,” said Gross to which Murray chimed in: “How many golfers have wanted to slam one into Nick’s back?”

“Nobody putts better than Toby when he’s putting for a bogey,” added Gross.

When asked how this year’s competition differed from years past, Murray, dressed in “kind of a bell-bottom look” as Gross described it, told The Herald it seemed “more competitive.” That’s while his fellow teammate Rohrbach said she was more relaxed this time around.

The actress and former Sports Illustrated swimsuit model, who participated in the event for the first time last year (becoming the first woman to do so), is a seasoned golfer who played during college. This year, like in 2017, she brought home $10,000 for her charity, the Robin Hood Foundation.

“Now that I have the rhythm of the course, it’s a lot more fun,” Rohrbach told The Herald.

“This tour finally gives Kelly the canvas in which to work,” announced Gross, describing Rohrbach as showing more talent than many of the other golfers and calling her a “young athlete with an old soul.”

That was before Rohrbach’s chip missed the mark during the 18th hole chip-off contest before Murray ultimately made the winning shot, winning $20,000 for the Hemophilia Foundation of Northern California.

Still, Murray had some sour grapes left in his comedy grab bag.

“When I first heard that Juli Inkster was playing, I was assured I’d get the first pic (of her) but that changed in the middle of the night,” he said, attributing his team’s loss to some underhandedness by those in Team Eastwood’s camp.

For his part, Eastwood, who Gross noted was on the links just off the premiere of his new film “The 15:17 to Paris,” finished the day with a compliment about his golf swing.

“If Clint Eastwood was a car he’d be a Ferrari Testarossa psyched to go 180 in a blink of an eye,” said Gross.

That was just one of the many quick-witted one-liners during the event that was also filled with its usual share of fun and hijinks.

“Watching this event is about as much joy as you can feel without getting incarcerated,” quipped Gross.